Written by PETA
Update: Yellow sac spiders also think that the engines in 2008- and 2009-model Honda Accords are a great place for a family getaway, but if your family is planning one, you might not want them tagging along. Drivers who are worried that the arachnids might pop in for a visit could end up constantly checking their pant legs. Admittedly, that could get dangerous, so PETA is welcoming donated Accords to our little fleet as well. We can use the cars to rescue homeless or injured animals when people report them to us or to assist with spay and neuter surgeries for animals whose guardians don't have transportation. And PETA staffers won't mind the pant-leg pals.
Attention, Mazda owners: There's this MX-2 Spider version, and then there's the spiders who are thought to be living in some of the 65,000 Mazda6s that were recalled last week because a certain gas-loving arachnid likes to build webs in the cars' emission systems. The presence of the spiders can cause gas leaks and fires. And here's something that you may not know: If you're suffering from arachnophobia, PETA will be more than happy to help you out … by accepting your donated vehicle for use in animal rescue work! A PETA member who was deathly afraid of mice once donated her brand-new Jeep to PETA after a mouse popped out from beneath the glove box. PETA gladly accepted both the Jeep and the mouse and will do the same for your Mazda6. And for the spiders who call it home, we'll also do our best to get them out safely and find them new homes.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
It's so hot in the city, you'd think I'd be making another batch of lemonade—but I've got a hankering for some Internet Soup. It's been a while since the last batch, so dig in!
Oof! I don't know about you, but I'm full after all that soup—and guac. This Special K needs a siesta. Until next time …
Written by Karin Bennett
If you find yourself in fabulous Las Vegas this weekend and want to win big, be sure to roll by table number 459 at the Sands Expo Center.
There you'll find PETA Prime at the "Vegas@50+" conference, organized by American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Our booth features the many reasons to be "Veg@50+," including the following:
Whether you're a baby boomer or part of Generation Y, the odds for healthier living are in your favor when you go vegan. It's a winning gamble!
Shark finning is one of the most disgusting practices of the already disgusting fishing industry. Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off, and they are either left to suffocate or are thrown back into the water to slowly bleed to death or be eaten by other marine animals. All this suffering is inflicted in order to produce horrid "delicacies" such as shark-fin soup.
Worldwide, there is (happily) a movement toward stopping shark finning, but fishing interests in Virginia and North Carolina are, well, swimming against the tide by putting pressure on legislators to exclude some sharks from a proposed federal law banning shark finning.
If you live in North Carolina or Virginia, please contact your senators and ask them to support the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 with no exemptions. To learn about more ways to help sharks and other endangered marine animals, read this and this.
Written by Jeff Mackey
We all know that Stella McCartney's designs put the "hot" in haute couture. Unlike some designers who paradoxically try to revive lackluster collections by tossing in the skins of dead animals, Stella creates stunning designs without so much as a scrap of hideous hides.
In the November 2009 edition of InStyle magazine, Stella takes the gloves off when talking about the colossal fashion faux pas of wearing animal skins:
"Just say no to leather, fur and python. Everyone knows this about me, but even if I liked leather, I just couldn't wear leather pants. It's so soft-rock trashy."
Now I realize why seeing snakeskin on the runway turns my stomach—it's the Muzak of the fashion world! Well, that and because snakes are skinned alive to collect steal it. Now, someone please make sure Marilyn Manson reads this month's InStyle …
Written by Heather Drennan
On-again, off-again fur flaunter Lindsay Lohan recently tweeted that her fur is faux:
We loved the thought of Lindsay going from fur hag to faux fab, but it looks like the tweet from this twit might have just been a passing fancy. We called a rep from her much-ballyhooed (and widely panned) fashion line to see if she's ditched fur there too. Unfortunately, the rep confirmed over the phone that those tasteless stoles in LiLo's collection have, in fact, been ripped from the bodies of animals. So it looks like Lindsay's fashion sense probably is still as dead as her career.
It just doesn't make much sense to stop wearing fur if you still peddle it, Lindsay. If your tweet means that you've turned a new page and are going to trim the fur off your back completely so that you can join the ranks of the stylish women who always forgo fur, please let us know.
Written by Liz Graffeo
The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver are four months away, but tomorrow the torch will be lit in an elaborate ceremony in Olympia, Greece. While the torch-lightings for the past few Winter Olympics have been disrupted by weather, it wasn't the clouds that had officials worried at today's final rehearsal …
It was PETA's "seal" and demonstrators who kept everyone on their toes.
As long as Canada, the host of the 2010 Winter Games, continues to allow sealers to bash in the heads of helpless baby seals, we'll continue to expose its shameful cruelty, wherever we can.
According to Science News magazine, researchers have discovered the first known vegetarian spider in Mexico. A jumping spider who dwells and dines in acacia trees, Bagheera kiplingi (Kip, to his friends) is a fly guy who passes on the usual bug buffet for leafy snacks snatched from neighboring ants. That's right—Kip is an itsy-bitsy pickpocket. Athletic, thanks no doubt to their healthy vegetarian diet, these covert little arachnids give patrolling ant guards the slip and then swoop down and steal their supply of protein and fat-packed nubbins sprouting from the tips of leaves.
An eight-legged vegetarian renegade taking on an army to nick some nubbins. Neat, huh? Actually, all spiders are pretty darn neat. They're also much more frightened of us than we are of them—and for good reason! Even on the rare occasions when spiders may try to bite to defend themselves, only a few can actually pierce human skin.
So what have we learned? Spiders are cool and deserve respect. Some vegetarians have eight legs. And when picnicking under an acacia tree in Mexico, never ever take your eyes off your salad. That said, here's Kip, my personal pick for the "Cutest Vegetarian Alive":
Written by Amy Elizabeth
Just when we thought all the fur-clad skeletons had been pulled from Sharon Stone's closet, yet another story about animal abuse surfaces. In his new autobiography, actor Ernest Borgnine talks about working with Sharon Stone in her early, looking-less-like-a-scarecrow years. He writes that in Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing, Stone refused to do a scene with a spider unless the spider's pincers were ripped off—which the crew apparently did for her.
"It's not shocking to us that she displayed evil tendencies even when she was very young. It was her first starring role, and she chose to make a tiny insect an amputee. Perhaps she should change her name legally to Heart of Stone," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
I, for one, am appalled at the hypocrisy on Stone's part. She was willing to ask that this spider have his pincers ripped off his body, yet she exposed the surely terrified and disgusted crew on the set of Basic Instinct to bits of her that might give you the shivers. Shame on you, Heart of Stone.
And just for funsies, check out this fantastic picture that our friend Connie Talk created in response to Ingrid's letter asking Stone to get her brain scanned to see if Stone might be missing the empathy gene:
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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